Soft Cell

If you want to sell some of your plasma, a new Octapharma facility recently opened up behind the McDonald's on Midway Drive. If you can spend the time and pass the screening, you can earn $30 per visit, up to twice a week.

First, you must present a California driver's license or a U.S. passport, your Social Security card, and a utility bill verifying a residential address and showing a postmark within the past 90 days.

Although selling plasma might seem like a great way for the homeless people who frequent the Midway area to earn some cash, they are turned away without the requisite address, and a post office box or hotel address does not qualify.

Before you present your documents, plan to wait in the queue for between one and two hours. After you present the required documents, other factors can disqualify you. Such factors include a tattoo within the previous 90 days, ten or more tattoos or piercings, use of some prescription medications, intravenous drug use, active homosexual relations, recent jail time, and the lack of an easily accessible vein in your arm. You must also pass a physical.

For your first visit, plan to spend between five and eight hours. On subsequent visits, plan to spend between two and three hours. If you persevere, you earn a bonus of $20 on your second visit, $10 on your fifth visit, and $20 on your eighth visit. Open as of August 10, this facility at 3232 Duke Street replaces the previous location on Sixth Avenue next to Balboa Park. Hours include are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.